Petronas Inks Four PSCs for Mostly Proven Assets in Malaysia

Malaysia’s national oil and gas company said it has awarded four production sharing contracts (PSCs) for three Discovered Resource Opportunities (DRO) Clusters and one exploration block in the waters of the Southeast Asian country.

The DROs consist of nine fields located mostly in Sabah, a state on the Malaysian side of Borneo island, that already yielded oil and gas discoveries, according to a statement on the website of Petroliam Nasional Bhd. (Petronas).

Five of the fields — Sabah’s Bagang, Batai, Biris, Rempah and Ubah — went to a consortium comprising Petronas, ConocoPhillips and Shell PLC. The five fields under the Deepwater Revenue-over-Cost PSC are collectively called the Ubah Cluster.

Local player Dialog Resources Sdn. Bhd. won the Small Field Asset PSC, which consists of Rhu, Ara and Janglau. The three fields offshore Peninsular Malaysia form the RAJA cluster.

Sabah’s Erb South field went to EPOMS Sdn. Bhd, while E&P Malaysia Venture Sdn. Bhd. won exploration block PM515 in Peninsular Malaysia under the Enhanced Profitability Terms PSC.

The areas were offered under the Malaysia Bid Round earlier this year. Petronas is scheduled to launch the next Malaysia Bid Round in the first quarter of 2025.

“These resources, situated within proven hydrocarbon basins, offer significant development advantages due to their proximity to existing infrastructure, enabling synergistic development and swift monetization, ensuring efficient and cost-effective resource extraction”, Petronas said.

“We are pleased to see our petroleum arrangement contractors growing their portfolios in Malaysia”, said Bacho Pilong, senior vice president of Malaysia Petroleum Management (MPM).  MPM, under Petronas, is Malaysia’s upstream governing body.

“With their strong track records and proven capabilities, they continue to contribute significantly to the growth of Malaysia's petroleum sector.

“Block PM515 holds great potential for significant discoveries while the DRO Clusters are primed for accelerated development due to their sizeable resources and proximity to nearby facilities.

“The Ubah Cluster can greatly benefit from integration with the Kebabangan field, especially considering that both are operated by the same contractors – this integration can lead to various synergies and advantages for the operations of both fields”.

So far in 2024 Petronas awarded 18 PSCs covering DRO, late-life and exploration assets, Bacho said.

Meanwhile it unlocked new production in five projects at home and two in South Sudan, as well as made final investment decisions on seven Malaysian projects and five overseas projects, according to the company’s interim financial report published September 5.

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